Opening Day at IE University in Segovia

This place I always goes to serves this big piece of bread~

Before I start off on what happened last Wednesday, I guess I would like to start off on food here in Madrid. It's been 2 weeks since I arrived and I believe I've mostly eaten a lot of Spanish food. It's great! But now, I think it's time for me to eat some real Asian food too! I told So about it and she's been sweet enough to actually send a box of stuff from Korea. It should reach Madrid by next Monday. Depending on the contents... I may use it as a bargaining chip to my Korean classmates!

Lunch in Madrid is usually from 2-4pm. Honestly, I haven't adjusted well to this new time schedule (same applies for dinner). There have been instances that I've had 30-min breaks at 1030am and I've decided to wolf down food just so that I won't go hungry around noon. They say we'll adjust... might be so. But at this point, I guess not yet for me!

It's not a mass demonstration~ but students who have been waiting for their buses to arrive!

Opening Day began last Wednesday (April 3). We were told to wait outside the IE Library tucked deep into the posh neighborhood of the Salamanca district. Despite living only 1-minute away from school, I was there by 8am. And yes, truth be told I was the first person to arrive at the scene. For a moment I thought I was in the wrong place because nobody was there. Luckily, trickles of people came in... and soon, we were plenty.

At that point in time, I had lived in Madrid for at least a week and a half - and I've also attended some student-initiated gatherings. Then, I thought I had already met a lot of people. Apparently not... I would soon realize that I had only managed to meet about 20% of my classmates in the program. Waiting for the buses to arrive turned into a major outdoor social event of getting to know each other.

The school notice board said to be there at 830am sharp because the buses were leaving for Segovia. Well, guess what~ it arrived way past 9am!! It was extremely cold outside and I was hungry. The nearest Starbucks was 15mins away and none of us wanted to risk getting left behind if the bus suddenly arrived. Anyway, later.. just when my friends and I considered to get coffee, came the buses! Oh well!!

I was in a moving vehicle... so this was the best shot I could take of the scenery! Fail!

The journey from Madrid to Segovia lasted for an hour. I was seated next to Sushant, wbom I had met a few days earlier in a dinner. Sushant is from Delhi who worked in London as a software engineer. We exchanged stories in the bus about our lives and had a fairly good chat about a number of things.

At one point, I asked him about things he enjoyed / hobbies he had. He replied~ "Nothing really. I don't have hobbies in general". But I followed up by mentioning that "Oh, by that I meant things you like. For me, I like looking at landscapes, scenery, long distant views. I also like old, historical things". After that statement, it turns out that we indeed had a lot of hobbies in common.

The entrance to IE University in Segovia

I appreciate looking at peaceful sceneries ~ and apparently so does Sushant. I told him about the paintings my parents gave us during their wedding anniversary~ and how I ended up choosing paintings of landscapes, farms and other images that showed long distances. Later that day, Sushant would grab my attention to direct me to look at the back of the bus. He just said, "Miko, look". I turned around and saw this amazing plateau stretching in the distance. I looked back at Sushant and we both knew what had something in common!

We finally reached Segovia after an hour's worth of traveling. At that point, I was tired (and to think it hasn't even started yet). But I guess the excitement of seeing the famous entrance at IE University did quite change things. The entrance was impressive... and the congregation of business suits in the area was quite awe-inspiring. I personally felt that it could have been a suitable first episode of The Apprentice if we had a camera crew and Donald Trump also in attendance!

The red lights up top actually help heat the area. They said it had to be on for 2 days just to heat the church!

And so, the Opening Ceremony finally kicked off! We listed to each of the speakers and their advise for each of us. I personally enjoyed listening to the Admissions Department on how diverse our class was. 71 nationalities are represented in our class, with backgrounds in Financial Services, Construction, Consulting, Biotech, Marketing, etc. In my case, Media & Entertainment was at 3% of the student population. It was interesting to know that there some people in class who previously worked in the military, was a professional boxer, a national rugby athlete for their country, etc.

Me with Tom Cruise (just kidding! but he says he does get that a lot)!

Lunch break came quite late... around 230pm. So at that point I really made sure to have all my conversations near the food table! Food was really good, might I add! Later I ran into Sushant again and told him to follow me to the other table... apparently there were different items there too (mini burgers, other sandwiches, etc.)! Getting to know other people at this point was fun.

By 430pm the festivities were over. We grabbed a couple of photos outside (photos in my Instagram account) and headed back home. Everyone was exhausted.. and a few people even fell asleep. As much as I wanted to sleep, I wanted to look back once again at the scenery because I knew it would be a while before I would take another road trip. Anyway, that was what Opening Day was like!